West Gate bottleneck: Horror crash renews push for traffic chaos fix

PRESSURE is mounting on the Andrews Government to fix the West Gate bottleneck after a fatal smash on the bridge caused a 20km traffic jam. What is the solution? Take our poll

A MAJORITY of Victorians believe the East West Link would ease traffic gridlock in the west.

About 60 per cent of respondents to the NewsCorp poll said the East West Link would help resolve traffic woes on the West Gate Bridge.

Only a fraction of people said the Western Distributor (17 per cent) would be a viable solution.

The poll results (see below) come as pressure mounts on the Andrews Government to fix the West Gate bottleneck after a fatal smash on the bridge on Monday caused a 20km traffic jam.

Tens of thousands of motorists were caught on the freeway and at least seven key roads in the inner west were gridlocked after the inbound lanes of the West Gate Bridge were shut to motorists as police investigated the crash that killed a motorbike rider.

Traffic jams were pushed into neighbouring suburbs including Footscray, Kensington, Brooklyn, Yarraville, Seddon, Spotswood and West Footscray with travel speeds dipping to as low as 10km/h in the crawl.

LANES CLOSED ON WEST GATE BRIDGE AFTER MOTORCYCLIST KILLED

Traffic chaos in the western suburbs as commuters are diverted off the Westgate Bridge. Picture: Mark Stewart

All five lanes of the West Gate were blocked after the horror crash between the rider and a truck caused a massive ripple effect with students late for school, delivery drivers struggling to complete their runs, and workers running late.

At its worst, VicRoads data showed delays of almost 90 minutes for some motorists.

VicRoads said it is unable to swing cars onto the other side of the bridge when lanes were shut because it had fixed barriers down the centre.

Roads that copped the brunt of the chaos as motorists flooded detour routes were Williamstown Rd, Millers Rd, Geelong Rd, the Western Ring Rd, Somerville Rd, Ballarat Rd and Footscray Rd.

WHAT’S THE WEST GATE JAM SOLUTION? TAKE OUR POLL BELOW

Traffic chaos in the western suburbs as commuters are diverted off the Westgate Bridge. Picture: Mark Stewart

Also compounding traffic chaos for motorists from the west was Dynon Rd being cut to one lane after a separate truck rollover minutes after the death on the bridge.

It is the second time in a year the inbound lanes have been shut, with a police incident blocking access to the bridge for 30 minutes in February 2015.

The Andrews Government has promised to build a new Western Distributor, which will cost $5.5 billion — most of which will be paid via extra tolling. That project was put forward by tolling giant Transurban, after Premier Daniel Andrews sensationally revealed he would dump the East West Link project if Labor won the 2014 state election.

The decision to tear up contracts for the East West Link wasted $1.2 billion spent on the project. Mr Andrews said the government planned to build an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, with the Western Distributor to begin construction in 2017.

“No one needs to renew a call for a second river crossing to me — we’re getting on and building one,” he said. If construction begins immediately, it’s likely the project to join the West Gate Freeway to CityLink will be built by 2022.

RACV general policy manager Brian Negus said, “It’s a really unfortunate incident where someone has been killed.”

Mr Negus said it highlighted the need for safe driving and riding in any road space, especially when it’s congested.

“When an incident like this brings Melbourne to a standstill, it clearly amplifies the need for the Western Distributor project to provide an alternative to the West Gate Bridge,” Mr Negus said.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said the Western Distributor would not address gridlock on the West Gate Bridge as it was “simply an off-ramp to the West Gate Bridge”.

“It was a very sad circumstance on the West Gate, but what we’re finding is the West Gate is a complete mess,” Mr Guy said.

“The government is building the wrong project. They’re going to usurp the bridge but not the freeway, and we need to have that freeway come from the (Western) Ring Rd, not start at the base of the West Gate Bridge.”

JUST ONE CRASH BRINGS GRIDLOCK

TRAFFIC was banked up for as far as the eye could see.

City-bound workers, mums on the morning school run and those trying to get to important doctor’s appointments had been brought to a standstill.

Some motorists rested their foreheads on the steering wheel, joking they should have brought a pillow.

They had moved no more than 50m in an hour.

Those drivers who could work from home, chose to turn around to do so.

But others could do nothing but wait for the chaos to clear, checking their work emails on their phones.

Traffic chaos in the western suburbs on the Westgate Freeway as seen from Grieve Parade, Brooklyn. Picture: Mark Stewart

Authorities had shut down the five inbound lanes of the West Gate Bridge — the only main direct link to the city from the west — and diverted traffic through Yarraville and Footscray via Williamstown Rd after a deadly crash between a motorcyclist and a truck about 8am.

One mother told online how the gridlock made her two hours late for her two-year-old daughter’s first round of radiation at the children’s hospital.

A Geelong man also commented his trip to Melbourne took more than four hours.

Frustrated drivers were sympathetic another life had been lost on the road, but many complained how a single crash could almost completely shut off access to the city from the west. Some drivers said more needed to be done to service the western suburbs.

Donna Kent usually takes no more than 15 minutes in peak hour to get from Newport to Port Melbourne, but the consultant gave up and returned home to wait for it to clear.

“I tried at 8 o’clock and wasn’t going anywhere so I went home for two hours,” she said. Ms Kent, 46, said it was time the government came up with another solution to ease traffic.

“It’s just hectic,” she said. “The west has grown so much. There’s housing booming out in Werribee but there’s no infrastructure to support it.”

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@AleksDevic